1. Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2. ‘My troubled thoughts prompt me to answerbecause I am greatly disturbed.
3. I hear a rebuke that dishonours me,and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4. ‘Surely you know how it has been from of old,ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
5. that the mirth of the wicked is brief,the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
6. Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavensand his head touches the clouds,
7. he will perish for ever, like his own dung;those who have seen him will say, “Where is he?”
8. Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,banished like a vision of the night.
9. The eye that saw him will not see him again;his place will look on him no more.
10. His children must make amends to the poor;his own hands must give back his wealth.
11. The youthful vigour that fills his boneswill lie with him in the dust.
12. ‘Though evil is sweet in his mouthand he hides it under his tongue,
13. though he cannot bear to let it goand lets it linger in his mouth,
14. yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;it will become the venom of serpents within him.
15. He will spit out the riches he swallowed;God will make his stomach vomit them up.
16. He will suck the poison of serpents;the fangs of an adder will kill him.